What do you think about these child obesity ads?

[shinyhappypeople]

:iagree:

Not all kids and parents are oblivious to what is going on. Many are doing everything they can to help their overweight kids. They can't just crash diet to lose the weight; most kids have to just maintain their weight and wait to grow out if it. To outsiders it may seem like nothing is being done.

 

The ads seem like they might do more harm than good.

 

Bingo (to bolded). That pretty much sums it up.

[ravinlunachick]

I agree, sunflowers. My dd started watching Fizzy's Lunch Lab on PBS Kids, and for a while, she drove me nuts in the store, demanding to know how much sodium was in whatever I was buying. When I showed her how to read the labels, she started removing anything that didn't say "0mg". I had to prove to her that some sodium is in fact, necessary for life, LOL. It is a really clever show with catchy songs.

 

Of course children have tremendous influence over what gets purchased in most families. That is why they are marketed to so heavily.

[justamouse]

It gets complicated. 1 in 5 adults are functionally illiterate. That means that they really can't read the instructions on a food packet.

 

Wikipedia (with apologies, I'll find a better source later)

A 2010 article from the UK, 20% illiterate there, too

 

Then you add the other common factors of poverty-related obesity, such as addiction, mental illness, inadequate cooking facilities, not growing up in a home where parents actually prepared healthful foods from scratch...

 

some people are simply not like us.

 

If I really want to dance close to some kind of line (just when I'd gotten off some people's ignore lists) I could prove the problem by finding threads on this board about cooking challenges. Threads in which educated, literate homeschooling mothers are confronted with a common ingredient and have no idea what to do with it, or want to make soup and can't seem to figure out how. Or they've never cooked anything without a specific recipe for which they had exactly the same ingredients.

 

If making soup from scratch is a problem for a WTM Mom with fully equipped kitchen and money for the grocery store, how much more impossible is it for a woman who has none of those advantages?

 

:001_wub::001_wub::001_wub:

[mrsdrcook]

Tough call. I have one child who is in the 99th percentile for weight and height and has been consistently. The pediatrician is not concerned. I am trying to reduce our sugar consumption and will get her into sports activities when appropriate. She's only 2 1/2 now. Our other children have all been tall and big as well.

[Joker]

My problem is that some kids will never look like what most consider "normal". My older sis looks obese but is in better shape than most skinny, healthy (as considered by most) people. She runs every day and eats healthy but is big. She was always the kid that others asked to move heavy things and she always helped my mom rearrange furniture. :tongue_smilie:

 

I can't keep up with her running outside or at the gym. She gets a perfect bill of health at the dr except for the fact that she doesn't fit neatly into a certain mold. So, I worry about what these ads may do to those kids who will never look like what most consider "normal".

[ChandlerMom]

I think these ads are horrible and ignorant. It makes people feel justified in their fat prejudice (after all, look how sad the kids are), and does nothing to improve anything. No surprise to hear the ads have a financial motive. Just sick.

 

I fired my last Ped because she was lecturing us that my lean muscled, lanky kid with the immaculate diet and tons of exercise was in danger of dying from cancer, heart disease, etc because her BMI was in the 80th %ile for height. Mind you, she is in the 99th %ile for height and 85th %ile for weight, and the Dr was too ignorant to understand that her height meant the Dr was comparing her BMI to kids 2 years older. Just pathetic and ignorant.

 

These ads are just more scare tactics and ignorance to make money and thin unhealthy people (there are a lot) feel superior. My niece is seriously overweight, partly from build but mostly because her mom is obsessed with being thin, to the point of being psychologically abusive (like making a 9yo weight herself naked every morning and calling her fat). But according to these ads, that's ok, right? Because we've got to do something and clearly shaming the fat kid has worked so well so far. As kids we did the same thing to the "fat kid" in school, the only difference now is we can pretend we're doing it for their own good.

[Mommy22alyns]

Kroger and Wal-Mart have perfectly adequate selections of produce. Maybe not fennel bulbs at all times, but enough fresh food to eat a healthy and balanced diet.

 

 

Yes, they are adequate, but the post I quoted seemed to intimate that they weren't.

 

or any other vegetable more exotic than iceberg lettuce, onions, carrots, or russet potatoes.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Yes, they are adequate, but the post I quoted seemed to intimate that they weren't.

 

 

I was referring to a lack of knowledge of produce on the part of citizens of a community, as demonstrated by sellers of vegetables who ought to be a little above average in that regard.

[kwg]

Someone mentioned the backpck program...and which is it, are we eating to death or starving? I was saddened and shocked to see what they put in those backpacks! Gross! And I would be ticked if my kid came home with that stuff - poptarts?!

 

http://www.foodbankonline.org/HowWeWork/ChildNutritionPrograms/BackPackProgram.aspx

[LeslieAnneLevine]

I hate the ads.

 

Making kids who are overweight feel worse than they already do about their weight will only exacerbate the problem.

 

Parents know that their child is overweight. These ads might shame them into coming down hard on a kid about it and making him or her feel worse than ever and that does not result in healthier kids.

 

And the minimal effort put into this bothers me too. How hard it is to get some obese kids and put them on a billboard or in a TV commercial? That money could have been combined with some real effort to help people eat more healthfully and get moving more.

[Anne in CA]

Well, the ads got my attention. I have been the parent of an obese step child. Every other weekend at her mother's house she was allowed to eat all the junk she wanted. When she went back to ps high school she ate several dollars worth of penny candy a week sold at the school commissary. For many years our only vacations were camping trips that we took late in summer after her six week visitation with her mother so that we could help her take off some of the weight she put on. There is nothing more we could do to help her take off weight.

 

We kept her busy with physical activity, and as long as she was home schooled we kept her from being obese, but when she entered ps, there was nothing we could do at all. The schools make too much money selling soda and candy. An obese child is simply probably not the sole responsibility of the parents, schools should not sell any junk at all. Some kids do not have the responsibility to know what to buy when. The other kids do not need the stuff anyway.

[Catwoman]

And I would be ticked if my kid came home with that stuff - poptarts?!

 

It depends on the flavor. If they were the Frosted Brown Sugar and Cinnamon variety, my ds would have to pry them out of my cold dead hands. ;)

 

I like Pop-Tarts. :blush:

[Tigger]

Someone mentioned the backpck program...and which is it, are we eating to death or starving? I was saddened and shocked to see what they put in those backpacks! Gross! And I would be ticked if my kid came home with that stuff - poptarts?!

 

http://www.foodbankonline.org/HowWeWork/ChildNutritionPrograms/BackPackProgram.aspx

 

Exactly! How is feeding them crap a good thing? Yes, they're hungry, but there are infinitely better things to add to the backpacks!

[Guest submarines]

Exactly! How is feeding them crap a good thing? Yes, they're hungry, but there are infinitely better things to add to the backpacks!

 

True, many of us, especially those living a low carb lifestyle, these choices seem awful. But it is a very privilidged perspective.

 

If one is eating a typical North American diet, however, these are all good, popular choices, that kids might actually enjoy. It seems like Pop Tarts are included as a treat, in addition to dinner options.

 

Opinions on what is nutritious depend on context. When I was growing up with shortages of food, chocolate, for example, was considered a healthy treat, because it gave energy. Carbs were considered super healthy as well.

[msjones]

I think the ads are a decent starting place. But, what I'd really like to see are COOKING ads.

 

Yup.

 

A 30 second ad could teach how to cook up some tasty beans and rice. It could demonstrate, provide a quick recipe, and a quick breakdown of the cost.

 

A 30 second ad could teach how to make a veggie stir fry. Or a veggie omelet, or roast chicken and vegetables. Again, a quick and simple recipe, and a cost breakdown at the end of the ad.

 

So many people can't cook. I think many of those non-cookers would like to cook. Maybe they just don't know where to start.

 

I have a dream of driving an RV around the city doing free cooking classes in my little RV kitchen.

[Crissy]

Exactly! How is feeding them crap a good thing? Yes, they're hungry, but there are infinitely better things to add to the backpacks!

 

 

I agree that it looks awful. But when I try to think of cheap, non-perishable and easy to prepare items to pack for a child, I'm at a loss. Given those parameters, what would you all pack?

[Crissy]

 

I have a dream of driving an RV around the city doing free cooking classes in my little RV kitchen.

 

That would be amazing!

[Catwoman]

I have a dream of driving an RV around the city doing free cooking classes in my little RV kitchen.

 

I have a dream of you driving your RV to my house and doing all of my cooking for me. :D

[Crissy]

I have a dream of you driving your RV to my house and doing all of my cooking for me. :D

 

:lol::lol:

[sewingmama]

How do you live in one of the most metropolitan cities in the world and never taste a blueberry?

 

Well first you move to any big city in Australia -then go to the store and see that blueberries sell for $7.99 a small punnet - which equates to about 2 handfuls :glare: My kids have tasted them exactly twice in their lives and yes I know they are high in antioxidants and I should be feeding it to them every day but I can't afford it and my DH earns a good salary. (The farmers market sells them for the same price).

 

We live rural and we can't plant a garden -we live in a rental and are not allowed to do anything to change the house/yard -gardens are strictly out.

 

I was on the Dean's honour roll when I was at Law school (so I guess I'm fairly intelligent) and yet I can't cook for anything :o Obviously I can read and follow a recipe but for me that doesn't guarantee the end result will turn into something edible. I can't make bread or cakes -I have never made one that worked out - not even packet mixes. Some people just don't have the knack for cooking.

 

That being said - it doesn't mean I run off to the nearest McDOnalds like everyone assumes is what happens if you can't cook. :glare: My DD is GF so that can't happen here. It's not that hard to cut up raw vegies and fruit or make a pot of rice in the rice cooker or brown some chicken breast. We eat simple.

 

I'm one of those who would have trouble in making a pot of soup in a cooking challenge even with the recipe.

 

I had to throw out our entire Christmas dinner this year - why - because for some reason I thought that for one day of the year I would suddenly be gifted with cooking skills :lol:

 

DH bought me a bread machine for Christmas and we are returning it because I've made 12 loaves of bread since then and not one has been anywhere near edible.

 

Don't judge people because they can't cook - it's a science - and some people just never get it. It's easy for all of those who CAN cook - but saying that someone is lazy just because they can't cook is untrue. I think I would have to be one of the most unlaziest people you'll ever come across when it comes to cooking - I've tried a million recipies - but I can't get them to be edible :lol: I cook all the time -just most of the time we can't eat the results.:o

[Guest submarines]

Don't judge people because they can't cook - it's a science - and some people just never get it. It's easy for all of those who CAN cook - but saying that someone is lazy just because they can't cook is untrue. I think I would have to be one of the most unlaziest people you'll ever come across when it comes to cooking - I've tried a million recipies - but I can't get them to be edible :lol: I cook all the time -just most of the time we can't eat the results.:o

 

It's an art. :tongue_smilie:

I'm not a great cook, but I'm a decent cook. I can throw pretty much anything together without a recipe, and have a simple, tasty meal. Nothing eloborate, though.

 

It is difficult for me to comprehend about not being able to cook, though. I was never taught to cook. My mother never cooked. For something new, I just look at a recipe, and follow it, mostly loosely. :lol:

 

What does it mean exactly that you "can't cook?" I'd love to understand this more.

[Caribbean Queen]

The mom in the ad needs to get tough on Bobby and make him diet and exercise...right after she loses 100 pounds. He is a bit pudgy, she is huge. It's a "Take the beam out of your own eye so you can see clearly to take the speak out of your brother's" kind of thing. She isn't going to feed him pita bread and hummus while she eats Big Macs and fries, anyway.

 

By in large, I don't think it is true that fat people want to eat healthy, but are too poor to buy healthy food. Nor do I believe we (I am overweight too) are fat because we are too ignorant to figure out how to pick healthy foods and cook them. We are fat because it is fun for our mouths to eat too much junk. The Bible says there is such a thing as gluttony, and it's a sin.

[ravinlunachick]

I think that many backpack food programs are focused on foods that children can prepare for themselves, if parents aren't willing or available to help. That's how the one at dd's former school described it, anyway. :(

[vonfirmath]

I just don't buy that most adults couldn't figure out how to follow the prep directions on a bag of plain navy beans. A bag of dry beans + a ham hock would cost about $4 and would feed a family. The problem is that people want easy, fast options and there are a ton of them out there that are cheap.

 

...I wouldn't say I "can't figure it out" But I've got a couple of bags of beans in the pantry right now that have been sitting there a while because making them is intimidating.

 

I DO, however, make 15-bean soup. I've done it before. Know it tastes good, etc. But its hard for me to try new stuff. You would not believe how many butternut squashes went bad on my counter before I finally sat down and cooked one (then decided I wasn't sure it was worth the effort versus the stuff I'm more comfortable cooking)

[Murphy101]

Making dry beans is a royal pita.

 

And that's my opinion as a sahm.

 

If I worked outside the home? It'd never happen.

 

You have to either start it the night before or crack of dawn before work to have them ready for dinner. I'm not too lazy to do that. I simply get too busy or too tired. Come home make dinner, baths, laundry, homework, maybe an errand or two, get kids in bed, go over the day with dh, pass out.

 

Get up before dawn, eat a quick breakfast, grab whatever for the day, dressed, hit the door in time to get everyone to school/daycare/work. 1/2 way to work while traffic stalls you enough that you can take a breath, you remember the dry beans pkg is still sitting on the counter next to the crock pot where you put it so you wouldn't forget. Now you are extra screwed because you have to figure out what else to do for dinner.

 

This only has to happen a couple times before you decide dry beans isn't going to happen.

 

And that's if you even like beans. The only beans anyone in my house will eat are black beans. All other beans taste like dirt to us.

[Murphy101]

Many people work irregular schedules. If by the time I get home from work, pick up kids, errands it's no earlier than 6pm. For many it is much later. My dh regularly leaves for work by 6:30am and doesn't get home until 8pm. If I worked, it is highly likely my kids would have to make their own meals or have something easy and quick after one of us got home. And I know I have to do laundry, help with homework, or whatever else a person has to do between work and sleep - meals are going to almost always be quick. If finances are tight, it's going to be quick and cheap.

 

If a family is trying to navigate 2 jobs and kids in school, they are speeding considerable time "on the go running" to stay on schedule. Which means they don't have time to walk leisurely to and from places. They are in a hurry so they hop in the car.

 

This the reality of many families.

[Guest submarines]

I think the ads are a decent starting place. But, what I'd really like to see are COOKING ads.

 

Yup.

 

A 30 second ad could teach how to cook up some tasty beans and rice. It could demonstrate, provide a quick recipe, and a quick breakdown of the cost.

 

A 30 second ad could teach how to make a veggie stir fry. Or a veggie omelet, or roast chicken and vegetables. Again, a quick and simple recipe, and a cost breakdown at the end of the ad.

 

So many people can't cook. I think many of those non-cookers would like to cook. Maybe they just don't know where to start.

 

I have a dream of driving an RV around the city doing free cooking classes in my little RV kitchen.

 

Maybe their tastebuds are just not ready for the overhaul. Home-made nuggets and fries taste very differently from McDonald's. Home-made *and* healthy? Baked fries? Might be passable. Sweet potato fries? Forget it. Beans? Forget it.

 

Lots of people would rather not eat at all, and fill up with a donut and a cola, than eat a health soup if they are not used to different flavours.

 

There are some dinners that the kids and I enjoy, that DH won't touch. He'd rather eat a dry toast and go to bed hungry, and fill up the next day on junk at work. And *his* tastes are quite developed. If all you are used to is fast food, nothing else (cheap, healthy) even tastes good, unless you are convinced you have to do it for your health.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Making dry beans is a royal pita.

 

And that's my opinion as a sahm.

 

If I worked outside the home? It'd never happen.

 

 

Yes, but canned beans are quick and easy and are still relatively inexpensive even though they cost more than the dry kind. (It wouldn't solve your problem of not liking them though.;))

 

I've seen some neat programs out there to teach people for free how to prepare healthy, nutritious meals on the cheap. The best ones incorporated indigenous foods that matched the cultures of the people who actually used the program.

[Impish]

I've seen some neat programs out there to teach people for free how to prepare healthy, nutritious meals on the cheap. The best ones incorporated indigenous foods that matched the cultures of the people who actually used the program.

I was talking to SpecialMama a while ago about wanting to start up a program like that.

 

Something geared for those who aren't comfortable in the kitchen, and on a tight budget.

 

Walk them through everything from shopping, meal planning, and actual meal prep. Give them the skills not to be intimidated by new food, recipes, etc. Enable parents to feed their children nutritious food without breaking the budget, taking hours they don't have, or wading through a million and one recipes that may or may not work for them...and as a former single parent, it's devestating when you follow a recipe and it tastes nothing like the recipe sounds like it should, and nobody will eat the darn stuff. Simply can't afford that kind of error on a tight budget, which, I suspect, has a lot to do w/dependance on pkgd/prepared food.

[Rebecca VA]

I used to live in rural southern Georgia, home of Food Lion and Piggly Wiggly. There were NO healthy restaurants in our town; we had Pizza Hut, Waffle House, Taco Bell, and a few fried fish places. Most neighborhoods had no sidewalks for walking or riding bikes. Kids "played" only during organized sports, and it was VERY hot out much of the year.

 

The only reason I was able to live a healthy lifestyle was because I drove into the city (Jacksonville) every week or so to shop at a healthy food store, and because we lived in a safe, gated subdivision that enabled us to ride our bikes and walk a lot. (Though we had to do our exercise early in the morning or after dusk to avoid the heat.)

 

It was really a demoralizing place to be, honestly. It's really EASY to fall into boredom and inertia! People's lifestyles are set up in a way that totally discourages exercise, creativity, and most of the other things that make life interesting. Their only recreation is...eating.

 

The concept behind the Georgia ads is good, though a few of them are too short. I thought that seeing the children in black and white showed their obesity starkly -- color would have distracted the viewer. They do make the viewer think.

[Penelope]

 

Parents know that their child is overweight.

 

IME, no, many times they do not.

 

Many time they do not recognize that they themselves are overweight, or just how overweight they are, because everyone else in their community is overweight so there is a perception of normalcy.

[Rebecca VA]

Sewingmama, you should take a serious cooking course, or put yourself through a self-study cooking course. I did one semester at a cooking school before I got married, and the time and money I spent there have been repaid three times every day since. I'm not kidding. I learned knife skills (the school made us purchase chef-quality knives, which I still have 22 years later), how to cook all kinds of meat, how to work with dough, how to set a table properly and serve food in a professional manner, etc. Excellent stuff. There are many books that will teach you all these things and much more.

[jewellsmommy]

It's an art. :tongue_smilie:

I'm not a great cook, but I'm a decent cook. I can throw pretty much anything together without a recipe, and have a simple, tasty meal. Nothing eloborate, though.

 

It is difficult for me to comprehend about not being able to cook, though. I was never taught to cook. My mother never cooked. For something new, I just look at a recipe, and follow it, mostly loosely. :lol:

 

What does it mean exactly that you "can't cook?" I'd love to understand this more.

 

 

I'd say your both right. Cooking is an art. Baking is a science. :D

 

Cooking is easily tweaked. A pinch of this, a sprinkle of that. Baking is more about ratios of ingredients and can include having to perform certain techniques correctly. I can see being able to cook and not being able to bake.

 

When cooking, I rarely follow recipes exactly. I change, omit or add based on what I have, what we can/cannot eat or what we like. Some would look at a recipe and toss it entirely because they don't know how to tweak or are afraid to omit and change.

 

I can cook fairly well, but have not been exposed to many ingredients. If you gave me collard greens, I would not know what to do with them. I would be on here asking for help :tongue_smilie:. I prepare dry beans often. I can do anything in the squash family, but can not do anything tasty with eggplant, many failed attempts. We love spinach, carrots, and peas. But I have never prepared a radish or beets. My mother only ever cooked canned peas or corn. That's about it. So, I am already way ahead of what I had as a kid. But, yet, I am far lacking too.

 

If one does not feel equipped or knowledgeable, I can see why people would be apprehensive about just grabbing a strange (to them) veggie and trying to use it. I would not want to spend the money on a vegetable that I have no idea what to do with when I could just buy a bag of carrots or a bag of frozen peas and have a guaranteed outcome.

[Murphy101]

IME, no, many times they do not.

 

Many time they do not recognize that they themselves are overweight, or just how overweight they are, because everyone else in their community is overweight so there is a perception of normalcy.

 

I completely agree with you. I know many people who either claim they are happy with their weight (seriously complete denial) or truely think they a just a bit fat, when they are actually morbidly obese. They say their doctors (if they even see one) have unrealistic expectation, exaggerate their condition, or are refusing to give them a proper dx.

 

Sewingmama, you should take a serious cooking course, or put yourself through a self-study cooking course. I did one semester at a cooking school before I got married, and the time and money I spent there have been repaid three times every day since. I'm not kidding. I learned knife skills (the school made us purchase chef-quality knives, which I still have 22 years later), how to cook all kinds of meat, how to work with dough, how to set a table properly and serve food in a professional manner, etc. Excellent stuff. There are many books that will teach you all these things and much more.

 

Right. I'm betting the average person either can't afford that or doesn't have the time or both.

 

It'd be nice if it were a high school course in public schools. Though they'd probably screw it up.

[Murphy101]

If one does not feel equipped or knowledgeable, I can see why people would be apprehensive about just grabbing a strange (to them) veggie and trying to use it. I would not want to spend the money on a vegetable that I have no idea what to do with when I could just buy a bag of carrots or a bag of frozen peas and have a guaranteed outcome.

 

This is HUGE when discussing low income. It's expensive to try new things. You have to figure out how to use it and if it isn't eaten or doesn't turn out edible, then it was a complete waste of very limited funds.

[Snickerdoodle]

While walking down a crowded street the other day, I heard a teenage girl telling her friends that her doctor told her if she gained 10 more pounds she would be obese. She said:

 

"Well, I gained the 10 pounds anyways, and look at me. Do I look obese to you?"

 

To which her friends replied in the negative.